CN113875192A

CN113875192A - First entity, second entity, third entity and method performed thereby for providing a service in a communication network

Info

Publication number: CN113875192A
Application number: CN201980096738.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱塞佩·塞罗兹里; 卢卡·博尔蒂尼; 丹尼尔·加伊托; 加塔诺·帕特里亚
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2019-05-24
Filing date: 2019-05-24
Publication date: 2021-12-31
Anticipated expiration: 2039-05-24
Also published as: EP3977678A1; WO2020239188A1; US11824736B2; US20220239568A1

Abstract

A method performed by a first entity (111) for providing a service in a communication network (100). The first entity (111) obtains (701) a request from the second entity (112). The request assigns one or more links (118) to the first network slice to provide service over one or more paths (117). (118) One or more nodes (115) are connected. The request indicates at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by the link (118), and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice. The first entity (111) determines (702) a link (118) to be allocated to the first network slice. The determination (701) is based on one or more requirements, a first priority, and a set of available resources. The first entity (111) sends (705) an indication to the other entity (112, 113) based on the determined link (118).

Description

First entity, second entity, third entity and method performed thereby for providing a service in a communication network

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to a first entity and a method performed thereby for providing a service in a communication network. The present disclosure also generally relates to a second entity and a method performed thereby for providing a service in a communication network. The present disclosure also generally relates to a third entity and a method performed thereby for providing a service in a communication network. The present disclosure also generally relates to computer programs and computer readable storage media having stored thereon computer programs for performing these methods.

Background

A communication device within a telecommunications network may be a User Equipment (UE), such as a Station (STA), a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a terminal, and/or a Mobile Station (MS). The user equipment is capable of wireless communication in a cellular communication network or a wireless communication network, sometimes also referred to as a cellular radio system, a cellular system or a cellular network. The communication may be performed between, for example, two user equipments, between a user equipment and a normal telephone, and/or between a user equipment and a server via a Radio Access Network (RAN) and one or more core networks, possibly included within a telecommunication network. The user equipment may also be referred to as a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a laptop or a tablet computer with wireless capabilities, just to mention some further examples. A user equipment in this context may be, for example, a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-comprised or vehicle-mounted mobile device capable of communicating voice and/or data with another entity, such as another terminal or server, via the RAN.

A telecommunications network may cover a geographical area, which may be divided into cell areas, each of which is served by a network node, e.g., a radio network node or Transmission Point (TP), e.g., an access node such as a Base Station (BS), e.g., a Radio Base Station (RBS), sometimes referred to as e.g., an evolved node B ("eNB"), "eNodeB", "NodeB", "B node", or BTS (base transceiver station), depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations may be of different categories, such as wide area base stations, medium range base stations, local area base stations and home base stations based on transmission power and cell size. A cell is a geographical area where a base station provides radio coverage at a base station site. One base station located at a base station site may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The telecommunications network may also be a non-cellular system comprising network nodes that may serve receiving nodes such as user equipment with a service beam.

In third generation partnership project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), base stations, which may be referred to as enodebs or even enbs, may be directly connected to one or more core networks. All data transmissions in LTE are controlled by the radio base station.

The standardization organization 3GPP is currently specifying a new radio interface called NR or fifth generation cellular mobile communications (5G) -UTRA, and a 5G packet core network, which may be referred to as Next Generation (NG) core network, NG-CN, NGC or 5GCN for short.

Network slicing has become a major new network paradigm to meet the diverse needs of various vertical services in virtualized and software-enabled 5G networks.

A network slice may be understood as a dynamically created logical end-to-end network with an optimized topology to provide services for a particular use case, service class, or customer. A network slice is understood to include all network resources that may be needed and collocated. The management function may create, modify, and remove network slices.

Typical use cases for different classes of quality of service (QoS) requirements may include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low latency communication (urlcl), and massive machine type communication (mtc), as defined by the international telecommunications union (international federation).

Mobile network operators may be able to slice network resources (e.g., routers and links) and computing and storage resources to operate Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and cloud applications and allocate them to services. Although the technology is guided by the third generation partnership project (3GPP) with a focus on cellular telecommunications, network slicing may also find application in fixed networks.

Two attractive characteristics of network slices may be performance guarantees for orchestration and isolation. The orchestrator may slice the network along with the computing and storage resources and operate the services in that slice. Performance guarantees of isolation may be understood as ensuring that one slice cannot interfere with the performance of another slice. One slice of the network may provide mission critical services, such as services that may be used during emergency responses, another slice may provide services for legacy cellular users, a third slice may be allocated to internet of things (IoT) devices, and perhaps a fourth slice may be applicable to Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) customers, and so on.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is developing an example architecture framework known as Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Network slicing may be understood as a form of virtual network architecture that uses Software Defined Networking (SDN) and NFV technologies to leverage network functions and services in slicing.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a non-limiting example of a network function virtualization management and orchestration (NFV-MANO)10 architecture with an NFV management entity. In general, the management and orchestration architecture may include an NFV orchestrator (NFVO)11 and a Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM)12, each having a reference point to a Virtual Network Function (VNF) manager 13. An operation support system/service support system (OSS/BSS)14 may have a reference point to NFVO11 and another reference point to an Element Management System (EMS)15, which in turn may have one reference point to a VNF manager 13 and another reference point to a VNF 16. The VNF 16 has one reference point pointing to the VNF manager 13 and another pointing to the NFV infrastructure. NFV infrastructure (NFVI)17 has a reference point to VIM12, VIM12 has another reference point to NFVO 11. NFVO11 may manage the functions of network slice directory 18, VNF directory 19, NFV instances 20, and Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) 21. Fig. 1 also depicts the different interfaces connecting these entities.

Figure 2 schematically illustrates a non-limiting example of an SDN architecture, where the core functions of the network may be centralized in an SDN controller layer. Service providers and communication service providers can obtain network control independent of network equipment providers by simplifying network design, implementation, and operation. The network operator can set up the network nodes by using a simple programming method, rather than manually setting up each of the numerous distributed units. As shown in fig. 2, business applications 20 in the application layer 21 may communicate behavior and required resources with web services 22 in the control layer 23 via an Application Programming Interface (API). The control layer 23 may then relay the instructions or requirements from the application layer 21 to the infrastructure layer 24, which infrastructure layer 24 may control the forwarding and data processing capabilities of the network, such as the forwarding and processing of data paths. Centralized functionality of the SDN controller may be used to handle network problems in a timely manner and greatly reduce the time required to provide new network services or applications.

SDN and NFV are now being deployed commercially, and greater network flexibility can also be provided by software by allowing traditional network architectures to be partitioned into virtual elements that can be linked.

Network slicing may be understood to allow multiple virtual networks to be created on top of a common shared physical infrastructure.

One of the key requirements of a 5G network can be understood to support various vertical industries such as smart grids, electronic health, and smart cities. These verticals may derive different use cases that may place more stringent requirements than today's services. It will be readily appreciated that these requirements may be met after significant improvements in the architecture may be achieved. Network slicing can meet the diverse needs of the vertical domain and thus can be understood as a key concept in the upcoming 5G networks.

An end-to-end (E2E) service may include different domains, each with a different technology. An E2E slice may be composed of sub-slices belonging to one or more domains. A slice may be understood as an instance that may implement and operate services requested by the vertical domain independently of each other using different sets of resources. Thus, slicing may be understood as supporting the enabler of the vertical domain on a single infrastructure while maintaining and satisfying quality of service (QoS) guarantees and Service Level Agreement (SLA) agreements with the vertical domain.

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a non-limiting example of a level of recursion that a slice or instance may have, which conforms to the recursive nature of the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) and Network Slice Instances (NSI) and Network Slice Subnet Instances (NSSI) defined in 3 GPP. As shown in fig. 3, each slice may be identified by a single identifier for a particular administrative domain and each infrastructure segment, e.g., Radio Access Network (RAN), Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), etc. At the top level, for E2E slices 31 across multiple domains, a slice may include ordered, structured, and connected slices from the respective involved single domains, i.e., slice #1@ domain 132, slice #2@ domain 233, slice #3@ domain 334, and so on. These single domain slices may be Network Slice Instances (NSIs) of E2E multi-domain NSIs, which may be controlled and managed by the respective domains, respectively. At an intermediate level, within an individual domain, a single domain slice, a single slice may comprise a number of slices, referred to as subslices, e.g., slice #1@ domain 132, including

various subslices

35, 36, 37, 38 provided by the network segments involved, including enterprise networks, Radio Access Networks (RANs), Mobile Edge Computing (MECs), or edge networks and core networks. The corresponding example sub-slices are sub-slice #1.a @ enterprise segment 35, sub-slice #1.b @ RAN segment 36, sub-slice #1.c @ edge segment 37, and sub-slice #1.d @ core segment 38, all in domain 1. These segment-specific subslices may be understood as single-domain NSIs, which may be controlled and managed by control and management functions in this domain. It may be noted that an enterprise network segment may generally be controlled and managed by a corresponding enterprise/vertical 39 that may own the enterprise network. At the bottom level, a segment-specific sub-slice or instance may include the following or a subset of the following:

1. the network functions 40, structured and connected through the service function chain, are typically based on a predefined network slice template/blueprint, as defined in NGMN and 3GPP, a programming data plane for QoS/SLA 41.

2. The physical and virtual resources 42 that operate these network functions are as defined in the NGMN network slice model.

Fig. 4 schematically illustrates a correspondence between the 3GPP on the left and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) NFV network slice concepts on the right. According to this correspondence, Network Slice Instances (NSI)43 and Network Slice Subnet Instances (NSSI)44 may be mapped into Network Service Instances (NSI)45 in the ETSI NFV standard, see ETSI GR NFV-EVE 012 V3.1.1-2017-12. Network Slice Instance (NSI)43 is used by communication service 46. A Network Slice Subnet Instance (NSSI)44 contains one or more NFs 47, while a Network Service Instance (NSI)45 contains other NSIs or a set of VNFs and Physical Network Functions (PNFs) 48.

The corresponding slice management in view of the above may take place according to the framework schematically represented in fig. 5. Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a non-limiting example of how 3GPP network slice management in the NFV framework may be, where a 3GPP slice-related management function 51 may be connected to ETSI NFVO11 through an Os-Ma-NFVO interface 52. On the left side of the figure, entities that may be used in slice management are depicted, while on the right side NFVO11 is depicted, which may comprise an SDN controller and may interface with VIM21 to allocate links and VNFs 16 and/or PNFs 56. The bottom of fig. 5 depicts the network infrastructure. Communication with the SDN controller is not shown as it uses an internal interface. The network slice management 51 in the NFV framework includes a communication service management function 53, a network slice management function 54, and a network slice subnet management function 55. NFVO11 has reference points to VFNM 13 and VIM 12. The VFNM 13 in turn has reference points pointing to the EMS 15 and VNF 16. NFVI 17 has a reference point pointing to VIM12 and PNF 56, and PNF 56 also has a reference point pointing to EMS 15.

While SDN has made advances in design and performance, it is not always guaranteed to provide slices in a network. With existing slice creation methods, a request to provide a slice may be denied, which may result in poor network performance.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of embodiments herein to improve service provisioning in a communication network.

According to a first aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method performed by a first entity. The method is for providing a service in a communication network. The first entity operates in a communication network. The first entity obtains a request from a second entity operating in the communication network. The request is to assign one or more links to a first network slice to provide services in the communication network over one or more paths. One or more links connect one or more nodes in the communication network. The request indicates at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice. The first entity also determines one or more links to be allocated to the first network slice. The determination is based on one or more requirements, the first priority, and a set of available resources in the communication network. Further, the first entity sends an indication based on the determined one or more links to another entity operating in the communication network.

According to a second aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method performed by a second entity. The method is for providing a service in a communication network. The second entity operates in a communication network. The second entity provides a request to a first entity operating in the communication network to assign one or more links to the first network slice to provide a service in the communication network. One or more links connect one or more nodes in a communication network via one or more paths. The request indicates at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice. The second entity receives a response to the provided request from the first entity.

According to a third aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method performed by a third entity. The third entity operates in the communication network. The third entity receives an indication from the first entity operating in the communication network. The indication indicates an alert regarding the status of the one or more second network slices. The warning indicates one of: a) a reduction in full demand fulfillment from the one or more second network slices, and b) a deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices. One or more second network slices have been given one or more second resource allocations. Receiving is based on respective second priorities assigned to the one or more second assignments. The third entity also initiates, based on the received indication, performance of operation and maintenance actions in the communication network to stop the indicated alert.

According to a fourth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a first entity for providing a service in a communication network. The first entity is configured to operate in a communication network. The first entity is further configured to request from a second entity configured to operate in the communication network. The request is to assign one or more links to a first network slice to provide services in the communication network over one or more paths. One or more links are configured to connect one or more nodes in a communication network. The request is configured to indicate at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice. The first entity is further configured to determine one or more links to allocate to the first network slice. The determination is configured to be based on one or more requirements, the first priority, and a set of available resources in the communication network. The first entity is further configured to send the indication to another entity configured to operate in the communication network. The indication is configured to be based on one or more links configured to be determined.

According to a fifth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a second entity for providing a service in a communication network. The second entity is configured to operate in a communication network. The second entity is also configured to provide a request to a first entity configured to operate in the communication network to assign one or more links to the first network slice to provide services in the communication network. One or more links are configured to connect one or more nodes in a communication network via one or more paths. The request is configured to indicate at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice. The second entity is further configured to receive a response to the request configured to be provided from the first entity.

According to a sixth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a third entity. The third entity is configured to operate in a communication network. The third entity is further configured to receive an indication from the first entity configured to operate in the communication network. The indication is configured to indicate an alert regarding a status of the one or more second network slices. The alert is configured to indicate one of: a) a reduction in full demand satisfaction from the one or more second network slices, and b) a deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices. The one or more second network slices are configured to have been given one or more second resource allocations. The receiving is configured to be based on respective second priorities configured to be assigned to the one or more second assignments. The third entity is further configured to initiate, based on the indication configured to be received, performance of the operation and maintenance action in the communication network to stop the alert configured to be indicated.

According to a seventh aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method performed by a first entity.

According to an eighth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method performed by a first entity.

According to a ninth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method performed by a second entity.

According to a tenth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method performed by a second entity.

According to an eleventh aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method performed by a third entity.

According to a twelfth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method performed by the third entity.

The request is obtained by the first entity, and then one or more links are determined based on one or more requirements, the first priority, and a set of available resources in the communication network, and then the first entity is enabled to allocate the one or more links in an adaptive manner taking into account actual resources that may be available on the communication network. Similarly, the second entity can provide a response to the allocation request based on such adaptive allocation. Furthermore, the first entity can then take subsequent action to adaptively process the acquired request, as described below. By receiving an indication indicating an alert, the third entity can perform operation and maintenance actions in the communication network to stop the indicated alert and thus stop. For example, the third entity may release the link, i.e., move traffic to another available link or drop low priority traffic while reallocating high priority traffic on other links.

Drawings

Examples of embodiments herein are described in more detail according to the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram depicting a non-limiting example of a MANO NFV framework according to prior methods.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram depicting a non-limiting example of an SDN architecture according to existing methods.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram depicting a non-limiting example of the E2E network slicing concept according to existing methods.

Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a model of correspondence information between 3GPP and ETSI NFVI according to a prior art method.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram depicting a non-limiting example of network slice management in the NFV framework and the Os-Ma-Nfvo interface according to prior methods.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a non-limiting example of a communication network according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 7 is a flow chart depicting an embodiment of a method in a first entity according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 8 is a flow chart depicting an embodiment of a method in a second entity according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 9 is a flow chart depicting an embodiment of a method in a third entity according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram depicting a non-limiting example of signaling between entities in a communication network according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram illustrating two non-limiting examples a) and b) of a first entity according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram illustrating two non-limiting examples a) and b) of a second entity according to embodiments herein.

Fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram illustrating two non-limiting examples a) and b) of a third entity according to embodiments herein.

Detailed Description

As part of the development of the embodiments herein, the problems of the prior methods will first be identified and discussed.

Today, if a vertical or sliced consumer wants to define a network slice to support a particular service, the currently available technology provides the possibility of statically allocating one or more infrastructure resources and network components. Thus, the number of Physical Network Functions (PNF)/Virtual Network Functions (VNF)/Virtual Links (VL) allocated for acquiring the requested network slice is decided in the initial planning phase, and allocation is performed only according to the number of PNFs and/or VNFs and VLs to be reserved, regardless of the desired slice capacity and priority.

The reservation of network resources for user access is initially planned based on the type of service.

This is provided as an input to a Network Slice Management Function (NSMF) or a Network Slice Subnet Management Function (NSSMF) that is not aware of the actual resource availability in the infrastructure. Accordingly, the NSMF or NSSMF will forward it as input to the SDN controller and NFV orchestrator, see fig. 5.

The problem is that when queries are executed according to required resources, such as Central Processing Units (CPU), Random Access Memory (RAM), networks and disks, radio links, computational paths and certain constraints, the NSMF and NSSMF cannot know whether the requested PNF and/or VNF and network resources can be allocated to a slice. If the requested resource cannot be allocated to the service, which may be to create a slice or even increase the slice capacity, the request will be denied and the service will not be allocated. Even if the slice has a higher priority than existing services deployed in the network, such as emergency services.

PCT/EP2017/063586 entitled "Dynamic reflector allocation" introduces a solution in NFV, specifically layering from VNF manager to VIM by allowing Dynamic instantiation of VNFs based on required service capacity.

In contrast, current SDN algorithms are agnostic and do not consider how the slice will use the requested resources, they only consider idle resources and apply a Shortest Path First (SPF) algorithm based on this. The results may not be best when considering the entire set of slices requested on a particular network.

Further disadvantages of the current embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art by comparing such complex systems with certain aspects of the embodiments herein, as described below.

Embodiments herein address the existing problem of link allocation by providing dynamic network slice allocation based on capacity and service priority that may be needed. According to embodiments herein, the solution may be understood to involve creating an E2E network slice instance by dynamically allocating nodes and network resources based on requested slice capacity, taking into account slice priorities. Application and network resources that may be needed to provide the requested slice capacity may be allocated by a dynamic algorithm that allows for efficient use of the underlying infrastructure resources. The allocation algorithm may specifically take into account the slice priority when allocating resources for the slice. Resources may be temporarily withdrawn from lower priority slices to satisfy requests from higher priority slices.

The proposed algorithm may allocate links in the SDN domain according to slice priority, rather than based on first-come-first-serve allocation. Furthermore, depending on the use case, different parameters of the link may be considered as the main parameters to be considered. In particular, URLLC, for example, is one of the future use cases, such as autonomous driving cars, haptic communication and telemedicine, which can be understood as the need to optimize the delay, which is not a parameter contained in the current standards when identifying virtual links. I.e. not included in the VirtualLinkProfile, which is an object representing the properties of the virtual link in the current standard, as described in detail in the detailed description section below. In the MANO-NFV standard, only maxBitrate is considered. Depending on the use case of the slice, other parameters may have to be specified and optimized.

This additional feature, together with the solution proposed in WO-PCT/EP2017/063586 entitled "Dynamic reflector allocation", can be used to create a network slice based on one or more requested slice parameters taking into account slice priorities.

From the above, as a general overview, embodiments herein may be understood to relate to network slice instantiation based on slice priorities for link allocation.

Embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which examples are shown. In this section, the embodiments herein are illustrated by way of example embodiments. It should be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. For simplicity of description, not all possible combinations are described. Components from one embodiment or example may be present in another embodiment or example by default, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how these components may be used in other exemplary embodiments.

Fig. 6 depicts two non-limiting examples of communication networks 100 in panels "a" and "b," respectively, in which embodiments herein may be implemented. In some example embodiments, such as depicted in the non-limiting example of a of fig. 6, the communication network 100 may be a computer network. In other example embodiments, such as depicted in the non-limiting example of b of fig. 6, the communication network 100 may be implemented in a remote communication network 105, sometimes also referred to as a cellular radio system, a cellular network, or a wireless communication system. In some examples, the remote communication network 105 may include network nodes that may utilize a service beam to serve receiving nodes, such as wireless devices.

In some examples, the remote communication network 105 may be, for example, a network such as a 5G system, or a next generation network, or a newer system that supports similar functionality. The telecommunications network 105 may also support other technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks (e.g., LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), LTE half duplex frequency division duplex (HD-FDD), LTE operating in unlicensed bands), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) TDD, global system for mobile communications (GSM) networks, GSM evolution for enhanced data rates (EDGE) radio access networks (GERAN) networks, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), EDGE networks, networks composed of any combination of Radio Access Technologies (RATs) (e.g., multi-standard radio (MSR) base stations, multi-RAT base stations, etc.), any third generation partnership project (3GPP) cellular network, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) or WiFi network, microwave access worldwide interoperability (WiMax), ieee 802.15.4-based low power short range networks (e.g., IPv6 based on low power wireless personal area network (6 LowPAN)), Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or any cellular network or system.

Although terminology from Long Term Evolution (LTE)/5G has been used in this disclosure to illustrate embodiments herein, this should not be taken as limiting the scope of embodiments herein to only the above-described systems. Other wireless systems supporting similar or equivalent functionality may also benefit from utilizing the concepts covered in this disclosure. In future radio accesses, e.g. in the sixth generation (6G), the terms used herein may need to be re-interpreted in view of possible term changes in future radio access technologies.

The communication network 100 may include a plurality of entities. In particular, the communication network 100 may comprise a plurality of first entities, a plurality of second entities and a plurality of third entities, wherein the first entity 111, the second entity 112 and the third entity 113 are depicted in fig. 6. Any of the plurality of first entities, the plurality of second entities, and the plurality of third entities may be understood to have equivalents to the description provided herein for the first entity 111, the second entity 112, and the third entity 113, respectively. In some embodiments, the plurality of second entities may be one or more respective second entities 112.

Any of the first entity 111, the second entity 112 and the third entity 113 may be understood as a first computer system, a second computer system and a third computer system, respectively. In some examples, any of first entity 111, second entity 112, and third entity 113 may be implemented as a stand-alone server, for example, in a host computer in cloud 114. In some examples, any of first entity 111, second entity 112, and third entity 113 may be distributed nodes or distributed servers, some of their respective functions implemented locally, e.g., by a client manager, and some of their functions implemented in cloud 114, e.g., by a server administrator. However, in other examples, any of the first entity 111, the second entity 112, and the third entity 113 may also be implemented as a processing resource in a server farm.

In some embodiments, any of first entity 111, second entity 112, and third entity 113 may be separate and distinct nodes. In other embodiments, any of first entity 111, second entity 112, and third entity 113 may be co-located or be the same node.

To simplify the drawing, not all possible combinations are depicted in fig. 6. In some examples of embodiments herein, the first entity 111 may be an SDN controller, for example in 5G, or an entity capable of performing similar functions in the communication network 100. The second entity 112 may be, for example, an NSMF in 5G, or a node capable of performing similar functions in the communication network 100. The third entity 113 may be an operation and maintenance (O & M) entity or an entity capable of performing similar functions in the communication network 100.

Any of the second and third entities may be referred to herein as another

entity

112, 113.

The communication network 100 includes one or more nodes 115. One or more nodes 115 may be included in one or more edge networks and clouds and/or one or more core networks and clouds and their connections 116. The one or more nodes 115 may include a core network node, such as core network node 119 described below, a radio network node, such as radio network node 120 described below, and a wireless device, such as wireless device 140 described below. One or more nodes 115, which may be included in one or more edge networks and clouds and/or one or more core networks and clouds, may be connected by one or more paths 117. Each of the one or more paths 117 may include one or more links 118. In fig. 6, and for purposes of illustration only, one or more paths 117 are represented as a single path comprising two links.

The core network node 119 may be, for example, a Mobility Management Entity (MME), an Access Management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), a serving GW node (SGW), a packet data GW node (PGW), a self-organizing network (SON) node, an operation support system node (OSS), etc.

The communication network 100 may comprise a plurality of radio network nodes, wherein one radio network node 120 is depicted in b of fig. 6. Radio network node 120 may generally be a base station or a Transmission Point (TP), or any other network element capable of serving a wireless device or machine type node in communication network 100. The radio network node 120 may be, for example, a 5G gbb, a 4G eNB, or a radio network node in an alternative 5G radio access technology (e.g., fixed or WiFi). The radio network node 120 may be, for example, a wide area base station, a medium range base station, a local area base station and a home base station, which are based on transmission power and thus also on coverage. The radio network node 120 may be a fixed relay node or a mobile relay node. The radio network node 120 may support one or several communication technologies and its name may depend on the technology and terminology used. The radio network node 120 may be directly connected to one or more networks and/or one or more core networks.

The communication network 100 covers a geographical area which may be divided into cell areas, wherein each cell area may be served by a radio network node, but one radio network node may serve one or several cells. In the non-limiting example depicted in b of fig. 6, the depicted radio network node serves a cell 130.

The communication network 100 may comprise a plurality of wireless devices, of which the wireless device 140 is depicted in b of fig. 6. The wireless device 140 may also be referred to as, for example, a user equipment, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal and/or mobile station, a mobile phone, a cellular phone or a laptop computer with wireless capability, or a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), just to name a few further examples. The wireless device 140 in this context may be, for example, a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile device capable of communicating voice and/or data via the RAN with another entity, such as a server, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or tablet, sometimes also referred to as a wireless-enabled tablet, or simply a tablet, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, a device equipped with a wireless interface, such as a printer or file storage device, a modem, an embedded notebook (LEE), a notebook installation equipment (LME), a USB dongle, a CPE, or any other radio network element capable of communicating over a radio link in the communication network 100. The wireless device 140 may be wireless, i.e., it may be capable of wireless communication in the communication network 100, and in some particular examples, may be capable of supporting beamformed transmissions. Communication may be performed between, for example, two devices, between a device and a radio network node, and/or between a device and a server. The communication may be performed, for example, via the RAN and one or more core networks, which may each be included within communication network 100. In some particular embodiments, the wireless device 140 may be an IoT device, such as an NB IoT device.

The first entity 111 may communicate with the second entity 112 over a first link 151 (e.g., a radio link, a wired link, or a virtual link). The first entity 111 may communicate with the third entity 113 over a second link 152 (e.g., a radio link, a wired link, or a virtual link). The first entity 111 may communicate with the wireless device 140 over a third link 153 (e.g., a radio link). The third link 153 may be a direct link or comprise multiple links, e.g., via one or more other nodes, network nodes, radio network nodes, or core network nodes.

Any of first link 151, second link 152, and third link 153 may be a direct link, or it may be via one or more computer systems or one or more core networks in communication network 100, or it may be via an optional intermediate network. The intermediate network may be one or a combination of more than one of a public, private, or hosted network; the intermediate network (if any) may be a backbone network or the internet; in particular, the intermediate network may comprise two or more sub-networks, which are not shown in fig. 6.

In general, the use of "first", "second" and/or "third" herein may be understood as any way of denoting a different element or entity, and may be understood as a feature that does not confer on its modified noun a cumulative or chronological order.

An embodiment of the method performed by the first entity 111 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in fig. 7. The method may be understood as being for providing a service in the communication network 100. The first entity 111 operates in the communication network 100.

The method may include the acts described below. In some embodiments, some actions may be performed. In some embodiments, all actions may be performed. In fig. 7, the optional actions are indicated by dashed boxes. Where applicable, one or more embodiments may be combined. For simplicity of description, not all possible combinations are described. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one example may be present in another by default, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how to use these components in other examples.

Action 701

During a communication in the communication network 100, one of the entities in the communication network 100, e.g., the communication service management function 52, may send a request for a certain type of service to a second entity 112, e.g., the NSMF. A service may be understood as any type of communication service that may be used by mobile broadband (MBB), Machine Type Communication (MTC), and/or applications in an enterprise domain, where network slices may be used for deployment, such as on-demand networks. Machine Type Communication (MTC) may be understood as a form of data communication that may involve one or more entities that do not necessarily require human interaction. MTC may be used in devices for utility companies, traffic control, telemedicine, commercial security, telemetry, and the like. An Enterprise Application (EA) may be understood as a large software system platform intended to operate in an enterprise environment (e.g., an enterprise or government). EA applications may be used for, for example, accounting, finance, human resources, inventory control, manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution, and resource planning. Advanced enterprise applications may provide contact with customers, business partners, and suppliers. MBB may be understood as a market term for wireless internet access through a portable modem, USB wireless modem, or tablet/smartphone or other mobile device. MBBs may be provided by, for example, 3G and/or 4G networks.

The service may be provided by instantiating one or more network slices. To instantiate one or more slices to provide a service, first entity 111 may need to allocate resources (e.g., computing resources, such as one or more nodes 115, such as VNFs, and resources from the infrastructure of communication network 100, such as computing resources, such as Central Processing Units (CPUs), Random Access Memory (RAM), networks and disks, radio links, computing paths, and certain constraints) to one or more slices. For each desired path between one or more nodes 115 that may need to be included in the first network slice, one or more links 118 may need to be added according to one or more requirements (e.g., delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, etc.). The request may specify such one or more requirements as one or more characteristics or parameters that one or more network slices may need to have. According to embodiments herein, the request may specify two new parameters among other parameters: link Capacity (LC) and Network Sliced Priority (NSP).

A link may be understood herein as a connection between two entities in the communication network 10, for example a connection between a VNF and a PNF, a PNF and a VNF, a VNF and a VNF, and/or a PNF and a PNF. According to embodiments herein, a link may be a physical link or a virtual link. LC may be implemented by deploying one or more links 118 and expressed in terms of requirements for slicing (e.g., delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, etc.). The LC may be one or more of:

| |+--rwbandwidth of

| |+--rwThroughput capacity

| |+--rwDelay

| |+--rwDithering

| |+--rwEnergy consumption

Priority may be understood as a value that may be assigned to a slice that indicates an order in which the slice may need to be processed or machined in a plurality of slices. The slice priority may be expressed as a number, e.g., from 1 to 100. For example: a network slice instantiated for an ambulance service may have a priority of 1, a network slice instantiated for an IoT service related to temperature or traffic sensing may have a priority of 10, a network slice instantiated for a game service may have a priority of 50, and so on. The association between the LC and NSP may be considered as allocating free link resources, as described in act 702, or reorganizing already allocated links and WANs for reallocation to a new slice with higher priority, as described in act 703.

The delay may be understood herein to include at least one of an end-to-end (E2E) delay, a user plane delay, and a control plane delay. The E2E delay may be understood as one or more of the following: scheduling delay, queuing delay, transmission delay, receive side processing, decoding delay, and multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) Round Trip Time (RTT).

The user plane delay may be understood as the one-way time required for successful delivery of a data packet, e.g. in 3 GPP.

The control plane delay may be understood as the transition time from the most "battery efficient" state (e.g. idle state) to the start of a continuous data transmission (e.g. in 3 GPP).

In some examples, the one or more requirements may correspond to "service requirements for a 5G system" in 3GPP, as described in TS 22.261 v.16.0.0, 062017.

The second entity 112 may then in turn request the first entity 111, e.g. an SDN controller, to allocate links that may be needed in different segments of the links that may be required.

As previously described, in this act 701, the first entity 111 obtains a request from a second entity 112 operating in the communication network 100 to assign one or more links 118 to a first network slice. The first network slice will provide services in the communication network 100 via one or more paths 117. One or more links 118 connect one or more nodes 115 in the communication network 100. The request indicates at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links 118, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice.

Acquisition may include receiving, acquiring, or collecting. In this act 701, the obtaining may be accomplished, for example, via the first link 151 and, in some examples, via an Os-Ma-Nfvo interface, for example.

The first network slice may be, for example, an E2E slice.

A path may be understood as a connection between two entities. The path may be implemented by one or more links, which may be one or more radio links, wired links, or virtual links.

In some embodiments, the one or more links 118 may include at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

In some embodiments, the one or more requirements may be based on at least one of: values of delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth and power consumption for one or more paths 117. In some particular embodiments, as previously described, the one or more requirements may be, for example, Link Capacity (LC).

The first priority may be understood as a first Network Slice Priority (NSP). The network slice priority may be understood as a new input parameter of the first entity 111 (e.g. SDN controller) to be used in the method of selecting a link for the first network slice.

In some embodiments, the first entity 111 may manage an SDN controller, while the second entity 112 may manage network slice management functions. In such embodiments, in this act 701, the SDN controller may receive a link request via a VL descriptor with a given LC and NSP. VL descriptors may be understood as objects, tables, which may include information representing virtual links in the communication network 10.

VL descriptors that may be used, as extracted from paragraph 6.3 in the "ETSI GS NFV-IFA 014 V2.1.1(2016-10) specification," are described below, which may be modified with embodiments herein to include LCs and NSPs.

VL descriptor

Table 6.3.2.2-1: attributes of NsDf information elements

……

Virtual link configuration file

Table 6.3.4.2-1: properties of VirtualLinkProfile information element

6.7.2NsScalingAspect information element

6.7.2.1 description

The NsScalingAspect information element describes details of the NS scaling aspect. The NS scaling aspect is an abstraction that represents the particular "dimension" or "property" that a given NS may be scaled. Defining the NS level (also referred to as NS zoom level in this context) within the NS zoom aspect allows the NS instance to be zoomed "step by step", i.e., moved from one NS zoom level to another in a discrete manner, increasing/decreasing its capacity. Single step scaling does not mean that exactly one instance of each entity involved in the NS scaling level is created or removed.

The request may be an NSSI request. The request may be obtained via a network slice template. The slice template may be understood as describing one or more requirements of the slice concatenation as a series of attributes such as delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth and/or energy consumption, although this list may be understood as non-exhaustive. Based on these parameters, a set of VLs may be requested based on attributes defined into VL descriptors.

Network slicing template

A network slice template that may be used in embodiments herein may include two new parameters described herein: LC and NSP. The following text is a simple example of a network slice template in which new network slice priority and link capacity parameters may be added according to embodiments herein.

A module: ns-template

+ - - -rw network slices

+ - - -rw atomic composition

The | + - -rw ligation class

Node | + -rw

| + -rw link

The | + - -rw link capacity class

| l + -rw Bandwidth

| + - -rw throughput

| l + -rw delay

| + -rw dithering

Energy consumption of | + - - -rw

The | + - -rw storage class

||+--rw ram

| |+--rw rom

| l + -rw buffer

The | + - -rw calculation class

|+--rw cpu

|+--rw gpu

+ - - -rw predefined function Block

Controller | + - -rw sdn

| + -rw firewall

|+--rw vswitch

I + -rw load balancer

+ -rw service profile

| + - -rw qos-protocol

Isolation level of | + - -rw

Reliability level of | + - -rw

|+--rw slice priority

+ -rw operation management

+ - - -rw structure

Monitoring of + -rw

Acquisition of + -rw parameters

The first entity 111 may receive as input a slice template, which may include the new parameters described herein, namely: a) link Capacity (LC) of a slice, which may be expressed as delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, and b) Network Slice Priority (NSP). These two new parameters may be strictly connected and may allow network slice instantiation that fits the best link and Wide Area Network (WAN) allocation and satisfies the higher priority.

Act 702

For each required path between resources (e.g., computing resources such as VNFs) that may need to be included in the first network slice, one or more links 118 may need to be added according to one or more requirements (e.g., LC requirements such as latency, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, etc.). The first entity 111 may then need to check whether there are resources available to guarantee the one or more requirements for one or more links 118.

In this act 702, the first entity 111 determines one or more links 118 to allocate to the first network slice. The determination in act 701 is based on one or more requirements (e.g., LCs), the first priority, and a set of available resources in the communication network 100.

Determination may be understood as calculation, prediction, estimation or the like.

The available resources may be understood as resources that may be idle, i.e. resources that may have the capability to support the first network slice given their current load.

In some embodiments, the first entity 111 may proceed to act 705 as described below after determining the one or more links 118.

Act 703

In some embodiments, the set of available resources in the communication network 100 may not be sufficient to meet one or more requirements. Thus, in some such embodiments, the first entity 111 may check whether one or more requirements of the first network slice may be met by reconfiguring the slice with the lower priority.

Thus, in this act 703, the first entity 111 may determine whether to release resources from one or more existing second resource allocations given to one or more existing second network slices in the communication network 100. The determination of whether to release resources from the existing one or more second allocations in act 703 may be based on whether the first priority is higher than a respective second priority assigned to the one or more second allocations.

In other words, the Network Slice Priority (NSP) may also be used to allocate network resources to a first network slice by removing network resources from a second network slice having a lower priority in the event of a resource shortage.

Examples of the invention

For example, the first entity 111 may first calculate which is the minimum slice delay l (minaval) available according to act 702, in case only the free link capacities lat (minaval) are summed without modifying the second network slice with lower priority. If l (minaval) < ═ l (reqmax), the maximum delay required, then the link is reserved and the slice is assigned.

If the available resources l (reqmax) cannot be guaranteed, the first entity 111 may check if it is possible to release resources from the already scheduled lower second network slice priority, affecting their service level as little as possible.

Wherein:

l (minBlock) is the sum of lat (minBlock) of all paths used by the first network slice;

lat (minBlock) is the acquisition delay from the slice with lower priority, considering that the second network slice with lower priority can no longer operate after this resource is subtracted;

lat (minnoblock) is the acquisition delay from the second network slices with lower priority when they are set to the minimum delay value at which they can still operate at an acceptable level; and

l (minNoBlock) is the sum of lat (minNoBlock) of all paths used by the first network slice,

the first entity 111 may sum the link capacities lat (minnoblock) to calculate the minimum delay l (minnoblock). If l (minnoblock) < ═ l (reqmax), then the link is reserved and the first network slice is given.

If there is also acquisition capacity from the lower second network slice, affecting their service level as little as possible, and not guaranteeing l (reqmax), the first entity 111 may check whether all resources that have been allowed using the lower network second network slice priority are likely to reach the requested l (reqmax).

The first entity 111 may then sum the link capacities lat (minblock) to calculate the minimum delay l (minblock). If l (minblock) < ═ l (reqmax), then the link is reserved and the first network slice is given.

In some embodiments, the request may further indicate an acceptance level of degradation of at least one of: any of the one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice. In such embodiments, it may also be determined whether to release resources from the existing one or more second allocations in act 703 based on the indicated acceptance level.

Degradation may be understood as a non-optimal allocation of network slices. When degradation occurs, the network slice may be operational, but may not fully guarantee all functionality, thus potentially reducing serviceability.

The degradation of any of the one or more existing second network slices can be understood as a point at which minBlock and minNoBlock can be distinguished.

For the first network slice degradation, a lower level of allocation may be made if l (minblock) > l (reqmax).

The acceptable level may be understood as the lowest level to which a network slice may be assigned. That is, after the minimum degradation allowed, the network slice may not operate at all.

For example, the ns-template may include the following:

per-rw accepts the link capacity class

| l + -rw acceptance bandwidth

I + -rw accept throughput

| + - -rw acceptance delay

| + -rw accepts dithering

Acceptable energy consumption of | + - -rw

This informs of the minimum capacity requested to allocate the first network slice, which may become a possible degradation level of any of the one or more second network slices in the future.

Other parameters as golden parameters

The golden parameter is understood to be the parameter considered first, i.e. to be the parameter which is most important for the allocation. Other parameters may be considered later. For example, one of the non-golden parameters may be accepted as a lower value according to an acceptance level. Embodiments herein may also consider other parameters as golden parameters or as golden parameters along with delays.

In this case, only a few changes may be required, taking into account the specificity of the parameters considered.

For example, the total delay may be considered equal to the sum of the delays of each path, while the jitter may not be, where the total jitter may be less than or equal to the sum of the jitter of each path. Thus, for jitter, the conditions may not be as stringent as the delay. End-to-end slice bandwidth and throughput may be limited by the bandwidth and throughput of the sub-slice portion with smaller capacity. Further optimization of other parameters can only be done without affecting the main parameters.

Other differences may be in operating conditions. Some studies have shown that as traffic increases, delay may increase and jitter may decrease. Furthermore, the jitter conditions may be less stringent than the delay conditions accordingly.

The slice throughput and bandwidth LC may be applicable to each path of the slice, i.e., each path may need to meet the throughput and bandwidth that may be required.

Act 704

In some embodiments, in this act 704, the first entity 111 may iterate over the obtaining of act 701, the determining of act 702 one or more links 118, and the determining of act 703 whether to release resources for each of one or more subsequent requests respectively received from one or more respective second entities 112 over a period of time.

Iteration may be understood as reception or looping.

For example, first entity 111 may calculate a minimum delay l (minnoblock) according to act 702 and a link capacity lat (minnoblock). If l (minnoblock) < ═ l (reqmax), the link may be reserved and assigned to the first network slice.

If there is also acquisition capacity from the lower slice, affecting their service level as little as possible, and may not guarantee l (reqmax), the first entity 111 may check whether it is possible to use all resources already allowed by the lower network slice priority to reach the requested l (reqmax).

In some embodiments, the method may be iterated to assign slower slices that may have been affected by previous assignments of higher priority slices according to their LC and NSP.

Act 705

In this act 705, the first entity 111 may send an indication to another

entity

112, 113 operating in the communication network 100 based on the determined one or more links 118.

In this act 705, the sending may be accomplished, for example, via the first link 151, and in some examples, via the Os-Ma-Nfvo interface and/or via the second link 152, for example.

In some embodiments, the indication sent may be based on the results of the determination performed after iteration 704.

For example, the first entity 111 may return a response to the second entity 112 regarding the request.

In some examples, an alert and/or warning may be sent to another entity 113, such as a DC operator and/or administrator, to inform them of any issues that may arise in allocating resources during either or both of

acts

702 and 703, such as degradation of the second network slice within acceptable capacity tolerances, if the second network slice has been deallocated waiting for resource reallocation, and no matching resources are available, and so forth.

The transmitted indication may thus be at least one of: i) a response to the acquired request, wherein the other entity may be the second entity 112, and ii) an alert regarding the status of the one or more second network slices, wherein the other entity may be the third entity 113.

In some embodiments, where the transmitted indication is an alert state, the other entity 113 may be managed by an operator of the communication network 100.

The request may be denied if the first entity 111 cannot find resources that may be needed to instantiate the first network slice. For example, if one or more requirements cannot be met, it may be understood that the first network slice may not be created with the requested LC and thus the request to acquire may be denied.

In accordance with the above, in some embodiments, the response may include one of: a) deny the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network 100 may not be sufficient to meet the one or more requirements, b) accept the request if the one or more requirements are partially met, and c) accept the request if the one or more requirements are fully met.

In some embodiments, the alert may indicate one of: i) a reduction in full demand fulfillment from the one or more second network slices, and ii) a deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices.

By performing the actions just described, the first entity 111 may thus be able to: a) performing a first network slice request on the MANO to allocate one or more links 118 using the new parameters, b) better utilizing all available resources, and c) potentially moving resources from an allocated low priority slice to a new slice with a higher priority.

An embodiment of the method performed by the second entity 112 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in fig. 8. The method is for providing a service in a communication network 100. The second entity 112 operates in the communication network 100.

The method includes the following acts. Several embodiments are included herein. Where applicable, one or more embodiments may be combined. For simplicity of description, not all possible combinations are described. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one example may be present in another by default, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how to use these components in other examples.

Some of the detailed description below corresponds to the same references provided above in relation to the actions described for the first entity 111 and will therefore not be repeated here to simplify the description. For example, the first entity 111 may manage an SDN controller, while the second entity 112 may manage an NSMF.

Act 801

In this act 801, the second entity 112 provides a request to the first entity 111 operating in the communication network 100 to allocate one or more links 118 to the first network slice to provide a service in the communication network 100. One or more links 118 connect one or more nodes 115 in the communication network 100 via one or more paths 117. The request indicates at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links 118, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice.

Provisioning may be understood as, for example, sending or sharing, e.g., via first link 151, and in some examples, e.g., via an Os-Ma-Nfvo interface.

In some embodiments, the request may further indicate an acceptance level of degradation for at least one of: any of the one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice. In some such embodiments, the received response may also be based on the indicated acceptance level.

The one or more requirements may be based on at least one of: delay values, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, power consumption, and delay for one or more paths 117.

This action 801 may be understood to occur in a context where the service orchestrator may have sent a request for a certain type of service to the second entity 112 (e.g., an SDN manager such as an NSMF). Based on the requested capacity of the first network slice (e.g., E2E slice), the second entity 112 may decompose the respective request into involved infrastructure segments that may be managed by the respective NSSMF. For each infrastructure segment, it may communicate a request to the first entity 111, the SDN controller, to allocate link capacity and, for example, to the NFVO to allocate network function capacity. Network functionality capacity may be implemented by deploying one or more VNF instances that may allocate a portion of such capacity. PCT/EP2017/063586, entitled Dynamic reflector allocation, describes a possible implementation method for allocating network function capacity.

Act 802

After providing the request to the first entity 111, in this action 802, the second entity 112 receives a response to the provided request from the first entity 111.

The receiving may be accomplished, for example, via first link 151 and, in some examples, via an Os-Ma-Nfvo interface, for example.

In some embodiments, the response may include one of: a) deny the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network 100 may not be sufficient to satisfy the one or more requirements, b) accept the request if the one or more requirements are partially satisfied, and c) accept the request if the one or more requirements are fully satisfied.

An embodiment of the method performed by the third entity 113 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in fig. 9. The third entity 113 operates in the communication network 100.

Some of the detailed description below corresponds to the same references provided above in relation to the actions described for the first entity 111 and will therefore not be repeated here to simplify the description. For example, the first entity 111 may manage an SDN controller, while the third entity 113 may manage an NSMF.

Act 901

In this act 901, the third entity 113 receives an indication from the first entity 111 operating in the communication network 100 indicating an alert regarding the status of one or more second network slices. The warning indicates one of: a) a reduction in full demand fulfillment from the one or more second network slices, and b) a deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices. One or more second network slices have been given one or more second resource allocations. Said receiving in this act 901 is based on assigning respective second priorities to the one or more second allocations.

The receiving may be effected, for example, via the second link 152.

Act 902

After receiving the indication from the first entity 111, the third entity 113 initiates performing operation and maintenance actions in the communication network 100 to stop the indicated warning in this action 902, based on the received indication.

The operation may be, for example, adding new resources, changing LCs and NSPs for any of one or more second network slices, etc., then, by being notified, the third entity 113 may be enabled to actively release the link, i.e., move traffic on one or more other available links, or drop low priority traffic while reallocating high priority traffic on other links. .

Fig. 10 is a sequence diagram depicting a non-limiting example of an example for allocating a link to a first network slice, here an E2E network slice, using LCs and NSPs according to embodiments herein. In this non-limiting example, the first entity 111 is an SDN controller, such as NFVO, and the second entity 112 is an NSMF. This figure depicts an example of creating an E2E network slice instance according to embodiments herein. The signaling flow in this non-limiting example is as follows, according to the numbering depicted in fig. 7: at 1001, a service orchestrator, i.e., a communication service management function, sends a request for a particular type of service, where link capacity and network slice priority and other parameters are specified. The request includes a slice template, which in turn includes the new parameters LC and NSP. At 1002, upon receiving the request, the SDN manager, in accordance with act 801, further requests one or more SDN controllers to allocate a required link in a different network segment via AllocateLinks request, the request including the slice template. For each required path of the one or more paths 117, the SDN controller loops through

acts

702, 703 and 704. Then, according to action 705, the SDN controller sends the indication as an allocation _ Links _ Reply message. The NSMF sends a Create _ E2E _ slice _ Reply message to the communication service management function at 1003, which is received at 1004.

Examples of the invention

The method described herein will now be illustrated with two non-limiting specific examples.

Examples of methods performed by the second entity 112 as an NSMF

The goal of this non-limiting example may be understood to be to provide an optimized allocation of links to the first network slice, E2E network slice instance, taking into account the new parameters link capacity and network slice priority provided via the slice template.

Inputting:

the second entity 112 receives as input a slice template comprising the following new parameters: a) link Capacity (LC) of the first network slice, expressed as delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, and b) Network Slice Priority (NSP).

Method

Step 0:

the NSMF receives a new slice request via the template with the given LC and NSP and other optional parameters (e.g., acceptable capacity tolerance).

If the requested Network Slice Instance (NSI) consists of several Network Slice Subnet Instances (NSSI), e.g. one NSSI for the RAN, another NSSI for the core network, and a third NSSI for the RAN of a different management operator, the NSMF may break the slice request into multiple requests for the relevant NSSMFs. Each NSSMF may receive NSSI requests via a template with a given LC and NSP.

Step 1:

the NSMF/NSSMF may send the slice template containing the requested LC and NSP to the NFVO through the Os-Ma-Nfvo interface, according to act 801, see FIG. 5.

An SDN controller embedded in the NFVO may implement methods according to embodiments herein to allocate one or more links 118 between computing resources (e.g., VNFs) to slice instances (NSI/NSSI). The relevant SDN controller may use these results to allocate one or more links.

Step 2: if the allocation is unsuccessful, NSMF/NSSMF may reject the new slice request and terminate the method. It may then be necessary to release any VNF that has been assigned to the slice. It may also be necessary to release any links if they have already been allocated to the slice.

And step 3: the new NSI is successfully allocated.

Example of a method performed by the first entity 111 as an SDN controller (NFVO)

In this example, the delay is used as a golden parameter.

Defining:

lat (minaval) is the minimum path delay available without affecting the lower priority second network slice;

lat (minnoblock) is the acquisition delay from the second network slice with lower priority when it is set to the minimum delay value at which they can still operate at an acceptable level;

lat (minBlock) is the acquisition delay from the second network slice with lower priority, taking into account that this resource minus the lower priority second network slice can no longer operate;

l (minAval) is the sum of lat (minAval) of all paths used by the first network slice;

l (minnoblock) is the sum of lat (minnoblock) of all paths used by the first network slice:

l (minBlock) is the sum of lat (minBlock) of all paths used by the first network slice:

inputting parameters:

the maximum delay required: l (reqmax)

Required links: nLink

Method

Step 0: according to act 701, the SDN controller receives a link request via a VL descriptor with a given LC and NSP;

step 1: for each desired path between computing resources (e.g., VNFs) included in the first network slice, one or more links 118 may need to be added according to link capacity requirements (e.g., delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, etc.). According to action 702, the SDN controller may need to check whether there are resources available to guarantee the above requirements for the link. The following may need to be checked:

a) for each required path, there are already available links with a total delay lat (minblock) <l (reqmax) in the idle links, or slices with lower priority are reconfigured.

If the condition is not satisfied, this indicates that the first network slice with the requested link capacity cannot be created, and so the request is denied by sending an indication of act 705.

Step 2.1: according to action 702, only the free link capacities lat (minaval) are summed, without modifying the slices with lower priority, the minimum available slice delay l (minaval) is calculated. If l (minaval) < ═ l (reqmax), then the link is reserved and the slice is assigned. And continuing to step 4.

If it cannot be guaranteed to have available resources l (reqmax), the first entity 111 may check if it is possible to release resources from the already scheduled lower network slice priority, affecting their service level as little as possible, according to action 703.

Step 2.2: according to act 703, a minimum delay L (minNoBlock) is calculated by summing the link capacities lat (minNoBlock). If l (minnoblock) < ═ l (reqmax), then the link is reserved and the slice is assigned. And continuing to step 3.

If there is also acquisition capacity from the lower slice, affecting their service level as little as possible, and l (reqmax) is not guaranteed, then according to action 703 the first entity 111 may check whether all resources that have been allowed using the lower network slice priority are likely to reach the requested l (reqmax).

Step 2.3: according to act 703, a minimum delay L (minBlock) is calculated by summing the link capacities lat (minBlock). If l (minblock) < ═ l (reqmax), then the link is reserved and the slice is given. And continuing to step 3.

Step 2.4: if the resources required to instantiate the new link cannot be found, the request is rejected by sending the indication of act 705.

And step 3: according to act 704, a first network slice with the requested link capacity may be created using resources allocated for other low-priority slices, which may entail performing the following acts:

according to action 705, a response to the link request is returned to the NSMF/NSSMF to the second entity 112.

The method of assigning slower second network slices, subject to the previous assignment of higher priority slices, is iterated, subject to act 704, according to their LC and NSP, if possible.

According to action 705, an alarm/alert may be sent to the third entity 113 to the DC operator/administrator to notify resource issues, such as: slice demotion within an acceptable capacity tolerance, slice deallocation waiting for resources to be reallocated, no matching resources available, etc.

End of

And 4, step 4: according to act 705, a response is returned to the NSMF/NSSMF regarding the link request.

In other words, as an overview of the foregoing, embodiments herein address the existing problem of link allocation to create E2E network slices by initially allocating nodes and network resources based on the desired slice capacity. In the method the actual parameters that can optimize the capacity can be dynamically selected. Furthermore, the method may be extended to optimize more than one parameter.

Embodiments herein may include introducing some new parameters, such as network function capacity, link capacity and network slice priority, in the interfaces between the Network Slice Management Function (NSMF) and the Network Slice Subnet Management Function (NSSMF), SDN controller and NFVO.

Finally, embodiments herein may include the definition of interfaces between the NSMF, NSSMF, and SDN controllers for link capacity allocation to submit new parameters to the lower layers for physical allocation. For example, the interface depicted in fig. 5 may be modified to add changes to the LC and NSP according to embodiments described herein.

One advantage of embodiments herein is that one or more paths may be allocated according to the application capacity to be transferred. Embodiments herein may be understood as allocating one or more links in an adaptive manner taking into account the actual resources available on the communication network 100. Another advantage of embodiments herein is that they can increase the number of network slice allocation successes when resources are limited. Another advantage of embodiments herein is that they may allow for temporary movement of resources, such as radio links or WAN links, between network slices based on network service priority. Consider more relevant slices with higher priority and stop or reduce slices with lower priority. Yet another advantage of embodiments herein is that optimization may be understood as allowing delivery of capacity at a lower capital expenditure (CAPEX). Another advantage of embodiments herein is that the possibility to handle different parameters depending on priority can be used to optimize the link, as well as to reduce the energy consumption, or to change the golden parameters to be used, or to extend the method to energy consumption. Furthermore, automatic successful allocation and reallocation of link and node resources may allow for operational expenditure (OPEX) savings. Further, embodiments herein may increase maximum capacity and applicability. Another advantage of embodiments herein is that they may provide guarantees of service performance of the communication network 100, where redundancy schemes may be implemented.

Furthermore, the same proposed embodiment can be used to ensure slice isolation. An optimization method may be employed to prevent excessive use of capacity, taking into account the actual capacity of the slice, and resources are reallocated based on an indication of abnormal use of the slice. This can be achieved by setting the capacity to a specified amount while lowering the priority of the slice.

Fig. 11 depicts in panels a) and b), respectively, two different examples of arrangements that the first entity 111 may comprise to perform the method actions described above in relation to fig. 7. In some embodiments, the first entity 111 may comprise the following arrangement as shown in a of fig. 11. The first entity 111 may be considered to be for providing a service in the communication network 100. The first entity 111 is configured to operate in the communication network 100.

Several embodiments are included herein. Ingredients from one embodiment may be present in another embodiment by default, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how these ingredients may be used in other exemplary embodiments. In fig. 11, the optional blocks are indicated by dashed lines. Some of the detailed description below corresponds to the same references provided above as the actions described for the first entity 111 and is therefore not repeated here. For example, one or more links 118 may be configured to include at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

The first entity 111 is configured to obtain a request for allocating one or more links 118 to a first network slice for providing a service in the communication network 100 via one or more paths 117 from a second entity 112 configured to operate in the communication network 100, e.g. by means of an obtaining unit 1101 within the first entity 111. One or more links 118 may be configured to connect one or more nodes 115 in communication network 100. The request may be configured to indicate at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links 118, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice.

The first entity 111 is further configured to determine one or more links 118 to be allocated to the first network slice, e.g. by means of a determination unit 1102 within the first entity 111, wherein the determination is configured to be based on the one or more requirements, the first priority, and the set of available resources in the communication network 100.

In some embodiments, the first entity 111 may be configured, e.g. by means of the sending unit 1103 within the first entity 111, to send an indication configured to be based on the one or more links 118 configured to be determined to another

entity

112, 113 configured to operate in the communication network 100.

In some embodiments, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network 100 may not be sufficient to meet the one or more requirements, the first entity 111 may be further configured to determine, e.g. by means of the determining unit 1102, whether to release resources from one or more existing second resource allocations configured to be allocated to one or more existing second network slices in the communication network 100. Determining whether to release resources from the existing one or more second allocations may be configured based on whether the first priority is higher than respective second priorities configured to be allocated to the one or more second allocations.

In some embodiments, the first entity 111 may be further configured to iteratively acquire, determine, and determine whether to release resources, for each of one or more subsequent requests configured to be respectively received from one or more respective second entities 112 over a time period, e.g., by way of an iteration unit 1104 within the first entity 111. The indication configured to be transmitted may be configured to be based on a result of a determination configured to be performed after the iteration.

In some embodiments, the request may be further configured to indicate a level of acceptance of degradation of at least one of: any of the one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice. Determining whether to release resources from the existing one or more second allocations may also be configured to be based on an acceptance level configured to be indicated.

In some embodiments, the one or more requirements may be configured to be based on at least one of: values of delay, jitter, throughput, bandwidth and power consumption for one or more paths 117.

The indication configured to be transmitted may be configured to be at least one of: i) a response to the request configured to be retrieved, wherein another entity may be configured as the second entity 112, and ii) an alert regarding the status of the one or more second network slices. The further entity 113 may be configured to be managed by an operator of the communication network 100.

In some embodiments, the response may be configured to include one of: a) deny the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network 100 may not be sufficient to satisfy the one or more requirements, b) accept the request if the one or more requirements are partially satisfied, and c) accept the request if the one or more requirements are fully satisfied.

The alert may be configured to indicate one of: i) a reduction in full demand fulfillment from the one or more second network slices, and ii) a deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices.

In some embodiments, the first entity 111 may be configured to manage a software defined network controller, while the second entity 112 may be configured to manage network slice management functions.

The embodiments herein may be implemented by means of one or more processors, such as processor 1105 in first entity 111 depicted in fig. 11, together with computer program code for performing the functions and acts of the embodiments herein. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for example in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing embodiments herein when being loaded into the first entity 111. One such carrier may be in the form of a cd rom disc. However, other data carriers (e.g. memory sticks) are also feasible. The computer program code may also be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the first entity 111.

The first entity 111 may also include a memory 1106, the memory 1106 including one or more memory units. The memory 1106 is arranged for storing the acquired information, storing data, configurations, schedules and applications etc. when executed in the first entity 111 to perform the methods herein.

In some embodiments, first entity 111 may receive information through receive port 1107 from, for example, second entity 112, third entity 113, a plurality of second entities, e.g., one or more respective second entities 112, a plurality of third entities, and/or one or more nodes 115. In some examples, receive port 1107 may be connected to one or more antennas in first entity 111, for example. In other embodiments, the first entity 111 may receive information from another structure in the communication network 100 through the receiving port 1107. Since receive port 1107 may communicate with processor 1105, receive port 1107 may then transmit the received information to processor 1105. The receive port 1107 may also be configured to receive other information.

Processor 1105 in first entity 111 may also be configured to communicate or send information to, for example, second entity 112, third entity 113, a plurality of second entities, e.g., one or more respective second entities 112, a plurality of third entities, one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in communication network 100, through a transmit port 1108, which transmit port 1108 may be in communication with processor 1105 and memory 1106.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that any of the above-described units 1101-1104 may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., stored in a memory, i.e., executing as described above when executed by one or more processors, such as processor 1105. One or more of these processors, as well as other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed in several separate components, whether packaged separately or assembled as a system on a chip (SoC).

Any of the above-mentioned means 1101-1104 may be the processor 1105 of the first entity 111 or an application operating on such a processor.

Thus, the methods according to embodiments described herein for the first entity 111 may each be implemented by means of a computer program 1109 product, the computer program 1109 comprising instructions, i.e. software code portions, which, when executed on the at least one processor 1105, cause the at least one processor 1105 to perform the actions described herein, as performed by the first entity 111. The computer program 1109 product may be stored on a computer readable storage medium 1110. The computer-readable storage medium 1110 on which the computer program 1109 is stored may include instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor 1105, cause the at least one processor 1105 to perform the actions described herein, as performed by the first entity 111. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 1110 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CDROM disc, memory stick, or stored in cloud space. In other embodiments, the computer program 1109 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program, where the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium 1110, as described above.

The first entity 111 may include an interface unit to facilitate communication between the first entity 111 and other nodes or devices (e.g., the second entity 112, the third entity 113, a plurality of second entities such as one or more respective second entities 112, a plurality of third entities, and/or one or more nodes 115). In some particular examples, the interface may include, for example, a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

In other embodiments, the first entity 111 may comprise the following arrangement depicted in b of fig. 11. The first entity 111 may include a processing circuit 1105, e.g., one or more processors (such as processor 1105) in the first entity 111 and a memory 1106. The first entity 111 may also include a radio circuit 1111, which may include, for example, a receive port 1107 and a transmit port 1108. The processing circuitry 1105 may be configured or operable to perform method acts in accordance with fig. 7 in a manner similar to that described with respect to a of fig. 11. The radio circuitry 1111 may be configured to at least establish and maintain a wireless connection with the second entity 112, the third entity 113, a plurality of second entities, e.g., one or more respective second entities 112, a plurality of third entities, and/or one or more nodes 115.

Accordingly, embodiments herein also relate to operating a first entity 111 providing a service in the communication network 100, the first entity 111 being operable to operate in the communication network 100. The first entity 111 may comprise a processing circuit 1105 and a memory 1106, said memory 1106 containing instructions executable by said processing circuit 1105 whereby the first entity 111 is further operable to perform the actions described herein, for example in relation to the first entity 111 in figure 7.

Fig. 12 depicts in panels a) and b), respectively, two different examples of arrangements that the second entity 112 may comprise to perform the method actions described above with respect to fig. 8. In some embodiments, the second entity 112 may comprise the arrangement shown in a of fig. 12 below. The second entity 112 may be considered to be for providing services in the communication network 100. The second entity 112 is configured to operate in the communication network 100.

Several embodiments are included herein. Ingredients from one embodiment may be present in another embodiment by default, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how these ingredients may be used in other exemplary embodiments. In fig. 12, the optional blocks are indicated by dashed lines. Some of the detailed description below corresponds to the same references provided above as the actions described for the first entity 111 and is therefore not repeated here. For example, the first entity 111 may be configured to manage a software defined network controller, while the second entity 112 may be configured to manage network slice management functions.

The second entity 112 is configured to provide a request for allocating one or more links 118 to the first network slice for providing a service in the communication network 100 to the first entity 111 configured to operate in the communication network 100, e.g. by means of a providing unit 1201 within the second entity 112. One or more links 118 may be configured to connect one or more nodes 115 in the communication network 100 via one or more paths 117. The request may be configured to indicate at least one of: a) one or more requirements to be met by one or more links 118, and b) a first priority to be given to the first network slice.

The second entity 112 is further configured to receive a response to the request configured to be provided from the first entity 111, e.g. by means of a receiving unit 1202 within the second entity 112.

In some embodiments, the request may be further configured to indicate an acceptance level of degradation of at least one of: any of the one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice. The received response may also be configured to be based on an acceptance level configured to be indicated.

The one or more requirements may be configured to be based on at least one of: delay values, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, power consumption, and delay for one or more paths 117.

In some embodiments, the response may be configured to include one of: a) rejecting the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network 100 is insufficient to meet the one or more requirements, b) accepting the request if the one or more requirements are partially met, and c) accepting the request if the one or more requirements are fully met.

In some embodiments, one or more links 118 may be configured to include at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

The embodiments herein may be implemented by one or more processors, such as the processor 1203 in the second entity 112 depicted in fig. 12, in conjunction with computer program code for performing the functions and acts of the embodiments herein. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for example in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing embodiments herein when being loaded into the second entity 112. One such carrier may be in the form of a cd rom disc. However, other data carriers (e.g. memory sticks) are also feasible. The computer program code may also be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the second entity 112.

The second entity 112 may also include a memory 1204, which includes one or more memory units. The memory 1204 is arranged for storing the acquired information, storing data, configurations, schedules, and applications etc. when executed in the second entity 112 to perform the methods herein.

In some embodiments, second entity 112 may receive information from, for example, first entity 111, third entity 113, other second entities of the plurality of second entities (e.g., other one or more corresponding second entities 112), a plurality of third entities, and/or one or more nodes 115 via receiving port 1205. In some examples, the receive port 1205 may be connected to one or more antennas in the second entity 112, for example. In other embodiments, the second entity 112 may receive information from another structure in the communication network 100 through the receiving port 1205. Since the receive port 1205 can communicate with the processor 1203, the receive port 1205 can then transmit the received information to the processor 1203. The receive port 1205 may also be used to receive other information.

The processor 1203 in the second entity 112 may also be configured to communicate or transmit information through a transmission port 1206 to, for example, the first entity 111, the third entity 113, other second entities in the plurality of second entities (e.g., other respective second entity(s) 112), the plurality of third entities, the one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in the communication network 100, the transmission port 1206 may be in communication with the processor 1203 and the memory 1204.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that any of the above-described means 1201-1202 may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuitry, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., stored in a memory, i.e., executing as described above when executed by one or more processors (e.g., processor 1203). One or more of these processors, as well as other digital hardware, may be contained in a single Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed in several separate components, whether packaged separately or assembled as a system on a chip (SoC).

Any of the above-mentioned means 1201-1202 may be the processor 1203 of the second entity 112 or an application operating on such a processor.

Thus, the methods according to embodiments described herein for the second entity 112 may be implemented by means of a computer program 1207 product, respectively, which computer program 1207 product comprises instructions, i.e. software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor 1203, cause the at least one processor 1203 to perform the actions described herein, as performed by the second entity 112. The computer program 1207 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1208. The computer-readable storage medium 1208, on which the computer program 1207 is stored, may include instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor 1203, cause the at least one processor 1203 to perform the actions described herein, as performed by the second entity 112. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 1208 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CDROM disk, memory stick, or stored in cloud space. In other embodiments, the computer program 1207 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program, where the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium 1208, as described above.

The second entity 112 may include an interface unit to facilitate communication between the second entity 112 and other nodes or devices, e.g., the first entity 111, the third entity 113, other second entities of the plurality of second entities (e.g., other one or more corresponding second entities 112), the plurality of third entities, one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in the communication network 100. In some particular examples, the interface may include, for example, a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

In other embodiments, the second entity 112 may comprise the following arrangement depicted in b of fig. 12. The second entity 112 may include a processing circuit 1203, e.g., one or more processors (such as processor 1203) in the second entity 112 and a memory 1204. The second entity 112 may also include radio circuitry 1209, which may include, for example, a receive port 1205 and a transmit port 1206. The processing circuit 1203 may be configured or operable to perform method acts according to fig. 8 in a manner similar to that described with respect to a of fig. 12. The radio circuitry 1209 may be configured to at least establish and maintain a wireless connection with the first entity 111, the third entity 113, other ones of the plurality of second entities (e.g., other one or more respective second entities 112), the plurality of third entities, one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in the communication network 100.

Accordingly, embodiments herein also relate to a second entity 112 operable to provide a service in the communication network 100, the second entity 112 being operable to operate in the communication network 100. The second entity 112 may comprise a processing circuit 1203 and a memory 1204, said memory 1204 containing instructions executable by said processing circuit 1203, whereby the second entity 112 is further operable to perform the actions described herein, e.g. in fig. 8, with respect to the second entity 112.

Fig. 13 depicts in panels a) and b), respectively, two different examples of arrangements that the third node 113 may comprise to perform the method actions described above with respect to fig. 9. In some embodiments, the third node 113 may comprise the arrangement depicted as a of fig. 13 below. The third node 113 is configured to operate in the communication network 100.

Several embodiments are included herein. Ingredients from one embodiment may be present in another embodiment by default, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art how these ingredients may be used in other exemplary embodiments. In fig. 13, the optional blocks are indicated by dashed lines. Some of the detailed description below corresponds to the same references provided above with respect to the actions described for the third node 113 and therefore is not repeated here. For example, the first entity 111 may be configured as a management software defined network controller.

The third node 113 is configured, e.g. by means of a receiving unit 1301 within the third node 113, to receive an indication configured to indicate an alert regarding the status of the one or more second network slices to the first entity 111 configured to operate in the communication network 100. The alert is configured to indicate one of: a) a reduction in full demand fulfillment from the one or more second network slices, and b) a deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices. The one or more second network slices may be configured to have been given one or more second resource allocations. The receiving may be configured based on respective second priorities configured to be assigned to the one or more second assignments.

The third node 113 is also configured, e.g. by means of a start unit 1302 within the third node 113, to start performing operation and maintenance actions in the communication network 100 to stop the alert configured as indicated based on the indication configured as received.

The embodiments herein may be implemented by one or more processors, such as the processor 1303 in the third node 113 depicted in fig. 13, along with computer program code for performing the functions and acts of the embodiments herein. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for example in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code, which when loaded into the third node 113 performs the embodiments herein. Such a carrier may be in the form of a cd rom disc. However, other data carriers (e.g. memory sticks) are also feasible. The computer program code may also be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the third node 113.

The third node 113 may also include a memory 1304, the memory 1304 including one or more memory units. The memory 1304 is arranged for storing the acquired information, storing data, configurations, schedules and applications etc. when executed in the third node 113 to perform the methods herein.

In some embodiments, the third node 113 may receive information from, for example, the first entity 111, the second entity 112, a plurality of second entities (e.g., one or more respective second entities 112), other third entities of the plurality of third entities, and/or one or more nodes 115 via the receive port 1305. In some examples, the receive port 1305 may be connected to one or more antennas in the third node 113, for example. In other embodiments, the third node 113 may receive information from another structure in the communication network 100 through the receive port 1305. Since the receive port 1305 may communicate with the processor 1303, the receive port 1305 may transmit the received information to the processor 1303. The receive port 1305 may also be configured to receive other information.

Processor 1303 in third node 113 can also be configured to communicate or transmit information to, for example, second entity 112, a plurality of second entities, e.g., first entity 111, one or more respective second entities 112, other third entities in the plurality of third entities, one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in communication network 100 via a transmit port 1306, which transmit port 1306 can be in communication with processor 1303 and memory 1304.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that any of the above-described elements 1301-1302 may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuitry, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., stored in a memory, i.e., executed as described above when executed by one or more processors (e.g., processor 1303). One or more of these processors, as well as other digital hardware, may be contained in a single Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed in several separate components, whether packaged separately or assembled as a system on a chip (SoC).

Any of the above-mentioned means 1301 and 1302 may be the processor 1303 of the third node 113 or an application operating on the processor.

Thus, the methods according to embodiments described herein for the third node 113 may be implemented by means of a computer program 1307 product, respectively, the computer program 1307 product comprising instructions, i.e. software code portions, which, when executed on the at least one processor 1303, cause the at least one processor 1303 to perform the actions described herein, as performed by the third node 113. The computer program 1307 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1308. The computer-readable storage medium 1308, having stored thereon the computer program 1307, may comprise instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor 1303, cause the at least one processor 1303 to perform the actions described herein, as performed by the third node 113. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage media 1308 may be non-transitory computer-readable storage media, such as a cd rom disc, a memory stick, or stored in cloud space. In other embodiments, the computer program 1307 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program, where the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium 1308, as described above.

The third node 113 may include an interface unit to facilitate communication between the third node 113 and other nodes or devices, e.g., the first entity 111, one or more respective second entities 112, other ones of the plurality of third entities, one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in the communication network 100. In some particular examples, the interface may include, for example, a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

In other embodiments, the third node 113 may comprise the following arrangement depicted in b of fig. 13. The third node 113 may include processing circuitry 1303, e.g., one or more processors (such as processor 1303) and memory 1304 in the third node 113. The third node 113 may also include a radio circuit 1309, which may include, for example, a receive port 1305 and a transmit port 1306. The processing circuit 1303 may be configured or operable to perform method acts according to fig. 9 in a manner similar to that described with respect to a of fig. 13. The radio circuit 1309 may be configured to at least establish and maintain a wireless connection with the first entity 111, one or more respective second entities 112, other third entities of the plurality of third entities, one or more nodes 115, and/or another structure in the communication network 100.

Accordingly, embodiments herein also relate to a third node 113 operable to operate in the communication network 100. The third node 113 may comprise a processing circuit 1303 and a memory 1304, said memory 1304 containing instructions executable by said processing circuit 1303, whereby the third node 113 is further operable to perform the actions described herein, e.g., in fig. 9, with respect to the third node 113.

When the word "comprising" or "including" is used, it is to be interpreted as non-limiting, i.e. to mean "consisting of at least.

The embodiments herein are not limited to the preferred embodiments described above. Various alternatives, modifications, and equivalents may be used. Therefore, the above-described embodiments should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention.

Generally, all terms used herein should be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant art unless a different meaning is explicitly given and/or implied from the context in which they are used. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all references to a/an/the/an/the/element, the/element, the/or the/or the/or the/or the. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless one step is explicitly described as after or before another step and/or where it is implied that one step must be after or before another step. Any feature of any embodiment disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, where appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any embodiment may apply to any other embodiment, and vice versa. Other objects, features and advantages of the appended embodiments will become apparent from the description that follows.

As used herein, the expression "at least one: "followed by a list of alternatives separated by commas, and wherein the last alternative is preceded by the term" and "should be understood to mean that only one of the list of alternatives may apply, more than one list of alternatives may apply or all the list of alternatives may apply. This expression can be understood as being equivalent to the expression "at least one of: "is followed by a list of alternatives separated by commas, and where the last alternative is preceded by an" or "term.

Any of the terms processor and circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

As used herein, the expression "in some embodiments" has been used to indicate that features of the described embodiments can be combined with any other embodiment or example disclosed herein.

As used herein, the expression "in some examples" has been used to indicate that features of the examples described may be combined with any other embodiment or example disclosed herein.

Claims

1.A method performed by a first entity (111) for providing a service in a communication network (100), the first entity (111) operating in the communication network (100), the method comprising:

-obtaining (701), from a second entity (112) operating in the communication network (100), a request for one or more links (118) to be allocated to a first network slice for providing services in the communication network (100) via one or more paths (117), the one or more links (118) connecting one or more nodes (115) in the communication network (100), the request indicating at least one of:

i. one or more requirements to be met by the one or more links (118), an

ii a first priority to be given to the first network slice, an

-determining (702) the one or more links (118) to be allocated to the first network slice, the determining (701) being based on the one or more requirements, the first priority and a set of available resources in the communication network (100),

-sending (705), to another entity (112, 113) operating in the communication network (100), an indication based on the determined link or links (118).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network (100) is insufficient to meet the one or more requirements, and wherein the method further comprises:

-determining (703) whether to release resources from one or more existing second resource allocations given to one or more existing second network slices in the communication network (100), the determining (703) whether to release resources from existing one or more second allocations being based on whether the first priority is higher than respective second priorities given to the one or more second allocations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

-for each of one or more respective subsequent requests respectively received from one or more second entities (112) over a period of time, iterating (704): the obtaining (701), the determining (702) of the one or more links (118), and the determining (703) whether to release resources, and wherein the sent indication is based on a result of a determination performed after the iterating (704).

4. The method of any of claims 2 to 3, wherein the request further indicates an acceptance level of degradation for at least one of: any of the one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice, and wherein the determining (703) whether to release resources from existing one or more second allocations is further based on the indicated acceptance level.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein the one or more requirements are based on at least one of: delay values, jitter, throughput, bandwidth and energy consumption for the one or more paths (117).

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the transmitted indication is one of:

i. a response to the acquired request, wherein the other entity is the second entity (112), an

ii an alert regarding the status of the one or more second network slices, wherein the other entity (113) is managed by an operator of the communication network (100).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the response comprises one of:

a) a denial of the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network (100) is insufficient to meet the one or more requirements,

b) acceptance of the request if the one or more requirements are partially satisfied, an

c) Acceptance of the request if the one or more requirements are fully satisfied.

8. The method of any of claims 6 to 7, wherein the alert indicates one of:

i. a reduction in full demand fulfillment from the one or more second network slices, an

ii deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8, wherein the one or more links (118) comprise at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the first entity (111) manages a software defined network controller, and wherein the second entity (112) manages a network slice management function.

11. A computer program (1112) comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor (1107), cause the at least one processor (1107) to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. A computer-readable medium (1113) on which a computer program (1112) comprising instructions is stored, which instructions, when executed on at least one processor (1107), cause the at least one processor (1107) to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

13. A method performed by a second entity (112) for providing a service in a communication network (100), the second entity (112) operating in the communication network (100), the method comprising:

-providing (801), to a first entity (111) operating in the communication network (100), a request for one or more links (118) to be allocated to a first network slice for providing services in the communication network (100), the one or more links (118) connecting one or more nodes (115) in the communication network (100) via one or more paths (117), the request indicating at least one of:

i. one or more requirements to be met by the one or more links (118), an

ii a first priority to be given to the first network slice, an

-receiving (802) a response to the provided request from the first entity (111).

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the request further indicates an acceptance level of degradation for at least one of: any of one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice, and wherein the received response is further based on the indicated acceptance level.

15. The method of any of claims 13-14, wherein the one or more requirements are based on at least one of: delay value, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, power consumption and delay of the one or more paths (117).

16. The method of any of claims 13-15, wherein the response comprises one of:

a) a denial of the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network (100) is insufficient to meet one or more requirements,

17. The method of any of claims 13-16, wherein the one or more links (118) comprise at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

18. The method according to any of claims 13-17, wherein the first entity (111) manages a software defined network controller, and wherein the second entity (112) manages a network slice management function.

19. A computer program (1112) comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor (1107), cause the at least one processor (1107) to perform the method according to any one of claims 13 to 18.

20. A computer-readable medium (1113) on which a computer program (1112) comprising instructions is stored, which instructions, when executed on at least one processor (1107), cause the at least one processor (1107) to perform the method according to any one of claims 13 to 18.

21. A method performed by a third entity (113), the third entity (113) operating in a communication network (100), the method comprising:

-receiving (901), from a first entity (111) operating in the communication network (100), an indication indicative of an alert regarding a status of one or more second network slices, the alert being indicative of one of:

Deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices,

the one or more second network slices have been given one or more second resource allocations, and wherein the receiving (901) is based on respective second priorities given to the one or more second allocations, an

-initiating (902), based on the received indication, performing operation and maintenance actions in the communication network (100) to stop the indicated warning.

22. A computer program (1807) comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor (1803), cause the at least one processor (1803) to perform the method according to claim 21.

23. A computer-readable medium (1808) having stored thereon a computer program (1807) comprising instructions that, when executed on at least one processor (1803), cause the at least one processor (1803) to perform the method according to claim 21.

24. A first entity (111) for providing a service in a communication network (100), the first entity (111) being configured to operate in the communication network (100), the first entity (111) further being configured to:

-obtaining, from a second entity (112) configured to operate in the communication network (100), a request for one or more links (118) to be allocated to a first network slice to provide services in the communication network (i00) via one or more paths (117), the one or more links (118) being configured to connect one or more nodes (115) in the communication network (100), the request being configured to indicate at least one of:

i. one or more requirements to be met by the one or more links (118), an

ii a first priority to be given to the first network slice, an

-determining (702) the one or more links (118) to be allocated to the first network slice, wherein determining is configured to be based on the one or more requirements, the first priority and a set of available resources in the communication network (100),

-sending (705), to another entity (112, 113) configured to operate in the communication network (100), an indication configured to be based on the one or more links (118) configured to be determined.

25. The first entity (111) of claim 24, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network (100) is insufficient to meet the one or more requirements, and wherein the first entity (111) is further configured to:

-determining whether to release resources from one or more existing second resource allocations configured to be granted to one or more existing second network slices in the communication network (100), wherein determining whether to release resources from existing one or more second allocations is configured based on whether the first priority is higher than respective second priorities configured to be granted to the one or more second allocations.

26. The first entity (111) of claim 25, wherein the first entity (111) is further configured to:

-for each of one or more respective subsequent requests configured to be received from one or more second entities, respectively, over a period of time, iterating: the obtaining, the determining of the one or more links (118), and the determining of whether to release resources, and wherein the indication configured to be sent is configured to be based on a result of a determination configured to be performed after an iteration.

27. The first entity (111) of any of claims 25-26, wherein the request is further configured to indicate a level of acceptance of degradation of at least one of: any of the one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice, and wherein determining whether to release resources from an existing one or more second allocations is further configured to be based on an acceptance level configured to be indicated.

28. The first entity (111) of any of claims 24-27, wherein the one or more requirements are configured to be based on at least one of: delay values, jitter, throughput, bandwidth and energy consumption for the one or more paths (117).

29. The first entity (111) of any of claims 24-28, wherein the indication configured to be transmitted is configured as one of:

i. a response to the request configured to be fetched, wherein the other entity is configured as the second entity (112), an

ii an alert regarding a status of the one or more second network slices, wherein the other entity (113) is configured to be managed by an operator of the communication network (100).

30. The first entity (111) of claim 29, wherein the response is configured to comprise one of:

a) rejecting the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network (100) is insufficient to meet the one or more requirements,

31. The first entity (111) of any of claims 29-30, wherein the alert is configured to indicate one of:

ii deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices.

32. The first entity (111) of any of claims 24-31, wherein the one or more links (118) are configured to include at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

33. The first entity (111) of any of claims 24 to 32, wherein the first entity (111) is configured to manage a software defined network controller, and wherein the second entity (112) is configured to manage a network slice management function.

34. A second entity (112) for providing a service in a communication network (100), the second entity (112) being configured to operate in the communication network (100), the second entity (112) being further configured to:

-providing a request for one or more links (118) to be allocated to a first network slice for providing services in the communication network (100) to a first entity (111) configured to operate in the communication network (100), the one or more links (118) being configured to connect one or more nodes (115) in the communication network (100) via one or more paths (117), the request being configured to indicate at least one of:

i. one or more requirements to be met by the one or more links (118), an

ii a first priority to be given to the first network slice, an

-receiving a response to the request configured to be provided from the first entity (I11).

35. The second entity (112) of claim 34, wherein the request is further configured to indicate a level of acceptance of degradation of at least one of: any of one or more existing second network slices and the first network slice, and wherein the received response is further configured to be based on an acceptance level configured to be indicated.

36. The second entity (112) of any of claims 34-35, wherein the one or more requirements are configured to be based on at least one of: delay values, jitter, throughput, bandwidth, power consumption and delay for one or more paths (117).

37. The second entity (112) of any of claims 34-36, wherein the response is configured to include one of:

d) a denial of the request, wherein the set of available resources in the communication network (100) is insufficient to meet one or more requirements,

e) acceptance of the request in case one or more requirements are partially fulfilled, an

f) Acceptance of the request if one or more requirements are fully satisfied.

38. The second entity (112) of any of claims 34-37, wherein the one or more links (118) are configured to include at least one of: a radio link and a wide area network link.

39. The second entity (112) of any of claims 34-38, wherein the first entity (111) is configured to manage a software defined network controller, and wherein the second entity (112) is configured to manage a network slice management function.

40. A third entity (113) operating in a communication network (100), the third entity (113) further being configured to:

-receiving (901), from a first entity (111) configured to operate in the communication network (100), an indication configured to indicate an alert regarding a status of one or more second network slices, the alert configured to indicate one of:

ii deallocation of at least one of the one or more second network slices,

the one or more second network slices are configured to have been given one or more second resource allocations, and wherein receiving is configured to be based on respective second priorities configured to be given the one or more second allocations, an

-based on the indication configured to be received, initiating (902) the performance of operation and maintenance actions in the communication network (100) to stop the alert configured to be indicated.